


Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords

by Casioblancas



Category: Lupin III
Genre: Gen, Heist fic, OCs as Plot Devices, and briefly Zenigata, not that they're heisting very much but still
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-10-16 14:24:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17551379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casioblancas/pseuds/Casioblancas
Summary: Lupin and Jigen have traveled to England to steal the mythical King Arthur's sword. They hit some bumps in the road though, first in the form of a young girl with an unpredictable ability and then a gang of men set on capturing the girl.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't actually know shite about Arthurian legends¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

It was a nice enough autumn day the day that Lupin arrived in England, collected his luggage and stepped out of the airport. He stretched his arms as he took in a fresh breath of air, something worth more than all the gold he’d stolen in his career after the stale airplane air he’d had to breathe for hours on end. After his arms were loosened up and his back sufficiently popped he grabbed his suitcase and started walking across the street. Only a few steps into his walk police cars came zooming around every corner in sight towards him at full speed, only breaking and swerving in time to avoid hitting him, and he quickly found himself boxed in in the middle of the street. 

A single handcuff attached to a long chain flew at him and successfully wrapped around his wrist, and as soon as it did the chain was pulled taught forcing Lupin to take a stumbling step in the direction of the closest car. Zenigata, triumphant and in high spirits, stood next to the car reeling the chain in. His face was kept carefully neutral out of professionalism, but Lupin could detect the underlying excitement. 

“Pops! I’m so glad to see you,” he called out and waved with his free hand as Zenigata continued pulling him closer. 

“I’m sure that won’t last, Lupin,” Zenigata replied and stepped closer so that he could lay a hand on Lupin’s shoulder. 

“Why wouldn’t it? Because you’re trying to put me in jail? Like we haven’t done worse things to each other in the past,” Lupin giggled as Zenigata turned him around to place a real pair of handcuffs around his wrists behind his back. 

“No, because this time I don’t intend to let you get away again,” Zenigata replied and rummaged about in an inner pocket of his trench coat. A metallic clinking followed as he pulled his hand out and reached for Lupin’s hands again. Lupin craned his neck to look over his shoulder but couldn’t see what Zenigata was fiddling with.

“Whatcha got back there Po- _oOAAGH!_ ” He exclaimed as a frankly horrible stabbing pain bore into the sides of his thumbs. It was as if Zenigata had slowly stabbed him, but in his thumbs, and both of them at the same time. 

Zenigata walked around him to stand face to face and now he wasn’t trying to hide his emotions anymore. He was clearly very pleased that Lupin was sufficiently restrained and crossed his arms over his puffed out chest.

“Hah! You didn’t see that one coming! I know you Lupin, and I know any regular old pair of handcuffs won’t hold you in place. That’s why I did some digging and dragged these old thumb cuffs back into the light. History says not even Houdini himself could escape them!” As Zenigata talked Lupin’s emotions morphed from disbelief at the rough treatment, to recognition, to pouting. Now that he knew what Zenigata had done to him he put on his most pitiful face and slouched his shoulders.

“And there’s a reason for that, these things were deemed too inhumane long ago. They’re designed to bore the fastening screws right into the flesh of the prisoner, Pops. They’re torture devices,” Lupin whined and tried to look as if he were in excruciating pain. In reality the worst pain had already ebbed away, but he wasn’t lying about the screws, that’d leave two round symmetrical scars.

At the mention of torture Zenigata immediately deflated and the pleased expression fell away. Of course Pops never would’ve used them if he’d realized the design behind the device, a small comfort at least to know he hadn’t gone corrupt after years of fruitless chase. 

“That’s- that sounds awful. But I’ll have to look it up before taking your word for it,” Zenigata mumbled and nervously looked around. They were in the middle of the street, cars and officers surrounding them and observing with rapt attention, ready to pull their weapons if it came to that. The man closest to them had ridden in the car with Zenigata, and he must’ve felt somewhat closer to that man than the rest because he waved him over and talked with him in low tones.

“This man will accompany you in the car while I make a call, and if it turns out I do owe you an apology, then consider this one in advance,” Zenigata quickly bowed his head to Lupin before turning the other way and pulling his phone out. With his back to him Lupin could drop the pitiful act and smiled a fond smile. Zenigata would expire before he so much as had a single evil thought in his head. 

The moment didn’t last long as the officer whose custody he’d been put under grabbed him firmly by the elbow and gave it a tug to direct him toward the car. Lupin hummed pleasantly to communicate that he was willingly cooperating and started walking. The officer hung back a step to keep Lupin in front of him as they walked. 

They’d been close to the car to begin with, but in the few steps it took to close the distance Lupin had shown himself to be docile enough to make the watching officers visibly relax. They though it was already over, they’d all get to go home today without bruises or cuts. One step away from the car Lupin huffs out a quiet laugh.

“Not today fellas,” he says before taking a leap to the side in an effort to slide over the hood of the car, a good enough start to any escape. However, instead of the smooth solid feel of sliding over metal Lupin abruptly stops mid-air and falls on his ass, the rough texture of asphalt biting at his skin through his clothes. He has enough time to figure out that the officer’s reflexes had been better than he’d expected before the hand that grabbed his arm and thwarted his escape pulls him back to his feet. The device eating away at the skin of his thumbs digs deeper and Lupin protests loudly.

“Hey, hey- _ow OW OW!_ Man, careful!” His yelling doesn’t make the officer hesitate for a second. Once Lupin is on his feet again he is turned around and shoved backwards. His back hits the side of the car and the officer steps up close and balls his fists up in the fabric of Lupin’s shirt to prevent any follow up attempts at escape. Over the officer’s shoulder Lupin sees Zenigata some meters away, his mouth ajar and phone held limply in his hand. Lupin smiles sweetly at him and it seems to bring Zenigata back to the present. 

“That’s quite the impressive feat son, not many people can keep up with Lupin-“ Zenigata begins to praise the officer once he’s recovered enough from the split second of fear that gripped his heart when it looked like Lupin, despite his best efforts, could’ve slipped away again so soon.

“Quite true, I never knew the Yard had such skilled hands at their disposal, it’s just a shame they’re wasted on cops,” Lupin jokingly interrupts him and punctuates his statement with a wink to the officer in front of him. The man growls in response and presses his body against Lupin’s, completely pinning him to the car to remind him who’s in control.

Zenigata sighs, of course Lupin will never change, and observes the two of them having an intense staring contest for a few seconds before putting the phone back to his ear to make the call. Except before he does so, a sight without precedent unfolds before him. Zenigata stares and sees but cannot believe his eyes. It came out of nowhere, like a lightening strike from a blue sky. Right in front of him, in front of everyone, Lupin and the officer he’s gotten to know over the past week are vigorously kissing. Scratch that, they’re noisily making out, in the middle of the street, with not a care in the world. Zenigata stares dumbfounded. Half his brain has the here withal to ascertain Lupin hasn’t freed his hands and is using the make out session as a distraction to relieve the officer of the car keys or other items. But no, his hands are held firmly behind his back. Unfortunately the same can’t be said of the officer whose hands have traveled from Lupin’s collar to his hair and his stomach, the tips of his fingers creeping up under his shirt. 

Zenigata experiences his second bout of panicked clarity in the last minute and jumps into action with a start. He storms over to the two of them while yelling at the profoundly misconducting officer. 

“Have you no self control!? Do you want him to accuse you of police brutality? Get off of him!” 

He reaches them a mere second later, but it’s still a second too late. The officer, apparently oblivious to the world, presses a thigh between Lupin’s legs and gets a loud moan in response. A cold shiver runs down Zenigata’s spine as he grabs the officer by the back of his collar and tears him off of Lupin. It had just been going too well, Lupin had been too easy to locate and capture, because he’d probably planned this from the start. But to what end? Zenigata doesn’t have much time to think, he needs to act immediately. He puts himself between the two panting men and yells.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Have someone drive you back to the station where you’ll immediately report your misbehavior to the chief!” Zenigata feels his face getting redder and redder from equal parts embarrassment and pure fury as he speaks. Truly this is the most humiliating day of his professional life. That someone he’s working with would behave this way, shameful! Thankfully the officer seems to have snapped out of whatever spell he was under and looks appropriately ashamed as he ducks his head and walks over to another car for a lift.

Zenigata turns back to Lupin and opens his mouth to speak, to say something, but what should he say? No words come out and he is left gaping at Lupin who in turn looks like he just rolled out of bed the way his hair is tousled this way and clothes rumpled that way.

“Aw, Pops, I’ve never received such a warm welcome to a country before and you just had to go and ruin it,” Lupin pants and grins while pretending like nothing out of the ordinary just happened. 

Zenigata doesn’t know whether he should try to smooth Lupin’s clothes out or if that would be too inappropriate at this point, so instead he starts reading him his rights aloud. As he does so the car containing the officer drives off and he misses the conspiratorial glance and wink Lupin and the officer share before they’re out of sight from each other. 

-

Back at the station the offending officer stands in front of the chief’s desk. The chief wastes no time in picking up the yelling right where Zenigata left off at the airport, and with no less amount of fury in his voice.

“I’d have thought that someone like you of all people would value your position smack dab in central London and not get up to any… indecencies! And so soon! You do realize you’ll be sent back to the countryside with a dishonorable discharge, right?”

Ah yes, the countryside, where he is from. The officer sighs softly and quietly mutters something under his breath, which does not escape the chief. 

“You got something to say about all of this then? Speak up!” 

“I said; it’ll be a relief to finally shed this itchy face after having worn it for two consecutive weeks,” the officer scratches at his neck and walks around the desk between himself and his boss. The chief looks on as he approaches at a loss for words, what in God’s heaven does that mean? 

The officer stops in front of the chief who turns in his chair to face the other man. He’d kept one hand in his pocket as he walked up, and from it he quickly produces a small spray bottle with which he sprays a mist of some fluid right in the chief’s face before dropping it and hurriedly clamping a hand over the chief’s mouth to prevent him from any further yelling that might alarm others outside of the office. At first the chief thrashes and tries to pry his hand off his face, but his efforts quickly grow weaker until he slumps in the officer’s grip fast asleep. 

The officer holds still for another second to assure himself that the drug has properly kicked in before letting the chief go and straightening up. He reaches for his own neck again and scratches at a spot just hidden under his collar until his nails catch a seam. With his fingertips firmly gripping onto the latex edge he rips the mask off. 

Jigen puffs out a hot breath and wipes sweat from his forehead, the masks are so stuffy and this one in particular had started to smell from all the hours he’d spent in it. It was a comfort to know that his time in masks for this job was almost over and he pauses for a moment and smirks. Everything was going smoothly. After a few more cooling breaths he goes back to work. 

-

Zenigata’s mood has once again lifted when he steps into the chief’s office. Lupin, after being freed of the thumb cuffs, was successfully transferred to the station and into a cell without any hiccups. He hadn’t attempted any more sudden escapes and, to Zenigata’s relief, none of his partners had pulled off a daring rescue mission either. 

The chief is sitting behind his desk filling in information on a paper that Zenigata may or may not recognize as a termination contract. He’s had a couple of those thrown his way too in the past but, unlike that officer, they were always based on false accusations. When he walks up the chief lifts his head and greets him.

“Zenigata, the man of the hour! Congratulations are in order. Has all gone well?” The chief stands from his chair and reaches a hand over his desk to shake Zenigata’s hand. 

“Thank you sir. Lupin is in his cell and so far there have been no signs that he’ll try to escape, but that doesn’t mean his plans aren’t already being put into action. I fear the mishap earlier had something to do with a scheme of his,” Zenigata says, still waiting for the no doubt inevitable disaster to come. Things were peaceful so far but if experience had taught him anything it was that it is always calmest before the storm.

“You mean that countryside nobody? Frankly it’s embarrassing that we ever brought him all the way here, but he had shown promise in his home village. But do not worry yourself over that, I saw him earlier and it’s all been taken care of, I’ve got the proof of it right here on my desk,” the chief says and slaps a hand on the papers he’d been working on. Zenigata glances down at them and feels a small amount of relief, at least the officer was a real person then and not just someone fabricated to play a part in Lupin’s plans. 

“Yes, he’s taken care of. All that’s left to do is to arrange for Lupin’s transfer to France as soon as possible so that he’ll be forced to finally face the consequences of his lifestyle. Still, as much as I push for the process to be prioritized bureaucracy takes its time,” the chief says as he sits back down in his chair and looks at Zenigata.

“Inspector, you look wrung out. Why don’t you take a break? You caught Lupin and he’s not going anywhere anytime soon,” the chief suggests as he examines Zenigata’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PDA to throw Zenigata off, works every time. Y(° u °)Y
> 
> I'll be uploading a chapter every Saturday(or just sometime during the weekend) until I run out of chapters and the story is done


	2. Chapter 2

A compact yellow car speeds down a barely asphalted winding countryside road in the brisk autumn afternoon. Inside it Lupin and Jigen are preoccupied with uproarious laughter and spare no mind to the picturesque landscape stretching out in all directions around them. 

“You left him under his desk? Jigen, what happened to the plan to hide him in the bushes outside?” Lupin laughs, obviously not really bothered by Jigen’s improvisation. 

“It worked out anyway, didn’t it? And I ran out of time, Zenigata was on his way to the office and I still had to get into character,” Jigen shoots back in something halfway between a laugh and a bark. Lupin laughs with him and shoves a hand into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. He waves it in front of Jigen’s face temptingly. 

“Care to bet? How long before anyone finds him under his desk in his office, in only his undies and wrapped up like a nice Christmas present,” Lupin says as Jigen appreciatively eyes the fat walled, but ultimately pushes Lupin’s hand away with an amused huff. 

“Nah, the window is too small, who says they haven’t already?” 

“Then would you rather bet on how long it’ll take Pops this time to figure out that he’s been spending his entire past week in England being all buddy buddy with you?” Lupin snorts. 

“Not that either, he already had his suspicions when he came to the office. I only barely convinced him to relax and let me get your papers in order for him,” Jigen declines. Lupin looks less excited by the word and stuffs his wallet back into his pocket with a sidelong glance at Jigen. 

“Ay so boring, what’s wrong with you?” He mock complains. Jigen scratches his beard in thought and thinks back to the ordeal that had cost him personally two entire weeks of constant work, staying in costume and pretending to be some wide-eyed nobody and keeping Zenigata where they wanted him. 

“I’ll bet on this though; how long before he notices that I busted you out without making a noise and comes after us,” at Jigen’s suggestion Lupin immediately throws his walled up on the dashboard, face beaming again. 

“Done! All the cash in my walled on Pops taking at most a day to suss out that the chief went behind his back to have a word with the worlds foremost thief in his cell, alone, but walked back out together with a certain handsy village cop,” he laughs at the memory. Such a simple plan involving just two disguises, but oh so efficient, nobody had even so much as batted an eye at them. 

“Done! Damn though, all of this just to allow us some privacy on the job,” Jigen grins as he places his own wallet next to Lupin’s. Lupin looks over at him with that look that means he’s got everything under control. 

“If we want that sword on time we can’t afford to have Zenigata on our heels. Unfortunately he’ll have to sit this one out,” Lupin’s smile grows as he talks and he turns his head to flirtatiously flutter his eyelashes at Jigen. 

“But never mind him. Jigen dear, when did you learn to kiss like that?” Jigen lets out a sharp laugh at the face Lupin’s making and sinks further into his seat to prop his feet up on the dashboard. His ever present hat hangs low over his face barely allowing his smug smirk to remain visible under the brim. 

“None of your damn business is when,” he answers with finality. From the drivers seat Lupin laughs heartily at him. 

They continue driving further out the countryside in the pleasant autumn day. Eventually the road forks off to a gravelly path which Lupin turns onto. The path leads to nowhere but a dead end some ways into a forest where nobody who wanted something to do would ever go, which is the perfect spot for them to set up camp and go to work. 

Just as they reach the edge of the forest and soon to be the edge of the path, something big and white to their left catches Jigen’s attention and he sits up pushing his hat back on his head. It is a big building, and not some abandoned ghost house either. He stands up through the sunroof to get a better look. It’s a geometrical thing, painted the same shade of off-white that hospitals use with a tall chicken-wire fence running around the circumference of the building and its yard. As they pass it by and trees block out his view he ducks back down into the car. 

“That looked like some kind of institution, you said there’d be no people around,” Jigen remarks and Lupin hums affirmatively. 

“It is, but those people keep to their yard, they won’t be wandering into the woods and bothering us. Besides, once we reach the end of this path we’ve still got to walk a distance to reach the spot I picked out for us to rest up overnight. And then the job itself obviously requires us to walk all the way to the lake,” Lupin explains and waves off any concerns Jigen might have. Jigen listens until Lupin finishes talking as he settles back into his seat. 

“If you say so,” he says and pushes his hat over his eyes once again. 

“I just did. Don’t bother to nap again, we’re almost there,” Lupin says and nods his head at the path’s end coming up in front of them. 

Soon they’ve reached the end and parked the car. In the process of unloading the car and dividing the bags between them the sound of voices approaching from the woods catch their attention. The voices grow in volume as they get closer and soon a young girl and a mature woman step out of the trees caught up in conversation. The woman wears what appears to be some kind of nurse’s clothes, no doubt she works at the close by institution. The girl is dressed in loose fitting white linen clothes that are dirtied and grass stained. They continue conversing still unaware of Lupin and Jigen as they step from moss onto gravel. 

“-and I’m only coming back because I’m hungry, not because you asked me to. You couldn’t force me if you tried!” The girl rebelliously says with defiance in her voice. 

“Of course love, no one would force you to do anything. I’m just looking out for you, right?” The woman answers patiently, even fondly. 

As soon as they had heard the women’s voices Lupin had paused what he was doing and perked up to listen in. Now that they knew there was no threat Jigen went back to unloading the car, the noises he made finally making their presence known to the women. When the girl spots them and realizes that she’s been heard she looks to become very self aware, turning her head the other way and trying to hide behind the woman who smiles a friendly smile. 

Lupin broadly grins back and waves at them as he calls out in clumsy English overlaid with a thick French accent. 

“Allo! We will see the lake, do you know where is it?” He happily asks and flashes perfectly white teeth. The woman steps closer to their car to avoid having to shout. 

“Oh the lake is so beautiful, you’ll have a great time. Just go on ahead straight through these woods, but it’s pretty far, you’ll have to walk for an hour or so,” she explains to him, unaware that Lupin probably knows this area better than her from all the research he’s done. 

“Oh, is far? So we must hurry, it gets dark now,” Lupin says and pointedly looks at the still bright sky. Jigen has to pretend to look for something at the bottom of a deep bag to hide a smile. The woman politely laughs at him and assures him that they have plenty of time, before she wishes them a pleasant vacation and motions for the girl to walk with her back to the institution. 

“Why did you do that?” Jigen asks when they’re out of earshot. 

“That girl is obviously a patient and was uncomfortable being seen and heard by strangers. I’m a gentleman y’know, and as such I’m considerate of a little girl’s feelings, even if I have to play dumb. You should try it sometime,” Lupin answers and hoists a heavy rucksack onto his back. Jigen does the same and they start walking into the woods. Some twenty minutes later they find the natural clearing that Lupin had picked out beforehand for them to rest and set up camp in, and do so. 

By late evening when the sun has gotten low and the shadows grown long Jigen pulls out a camp stove and a skillet to cook them dinner while Lupin gives up on his quest to put the tent up. Instead he walks over to Jigen to strike up some conversation. Just as Lupin is about to squat next to Jigen and ask when the food will be ready, a distant thud echoes from the distance accompanied by a tremble running through the ground under their feet. They share a questioning look but neither man knows what caused it. 

“Lupin…” Jigen whispers. 

“I don’t know,” Lupin answers and puts his index finger to his lips, and they fall into silence. 

They stay quiet for a long time until it happens again, a deep thud echoes from somewhere among the trees and a tremble rattles the ground underneath them. Lupin turns in the direction the sound originated and scans the forest but comes up short as Jigen quietly clicks the stove off and puts the skillet down. It happens a third time, this time the thud is much louder and the ground noticeably shakes harder. In unison they get on the move, with their guns drawn they creep into the forest making their way towards the noise staying low and being mindful not to step on any dry twigs or leaves. A few more thuds and trembles guide them in the right direction. 

After having walked a significant distance a towering rock wall peeks out between the trees in front of them. At the foot of the wall a bunch of smaller boulders lay about on the ground. A sudden flash of white among said boulders has them diving for cover behind trees and bushes. Carefully peeking out from their hiding spots they see the young girl from before. She’s in the same type of clothes as then, only they’re cleaner this time. Her hair’s in a braid that falls over her back, and pearls of sweat run down her temples. She pants as she walks between and around the boulders. Lupin and Jigen glance at each other, Lupin with a sideways smile and a raised eyebrow. Was it her making the noises? Had they been scared by a girl playing in the woods? 

The girl huffs determinatively, drawing their attention back to her although the atmosphere is much more tranquil now as they put their guns away and relax their postures. They watch her step up in front of the biggest boulder of the bunch and glare at it, as if it were a manifestation of the worst insult ever thrown in her face. She’s mad about something and it shows, and Lupin just about stops himself from giggling aloud when she bends her knees and tries to grab ahold of the base of the rock. 

It dies in his throat when the rock actually tilts to the side from her efforts. She grunts as she shoves her hands further under the rock and heaves it up over her head. The rock, a solid boulder slightly bigger than Lupin’s car and probably ten times as heavy, is held aloft in the air by this furious little girl. Nothing about her appearance had suggested she ought to be that strong, and Lupin and Jigen can’t do much but freeze in place and quietly stare as she straightens her legs still with the rock held steady over her head. By all means it’s a feat no normal human being reasonably should be able to accomplish. She stands still a couple of seconds until her arms start to shake from the strain, at which point she lets the rock go and takes a step back allowing it to crash into the ground in front of her, leaving no evidence behind as to what just happened but the resulting thud and tremors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me getting the idea for this story: I’m so smart   
> vs me writing this story: I have invented... the hulk


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it just me or are the chapters getting shorter @_@

Lupin who by nature has an abundance of curiosity and severe lack of sense of self preservation stood glued to the spot beholding the scene playing out in front of him until Jigen decided he had had enough and thought _fuck this_ on behalf of them both. He grabbed onto Lupin’s arm and slowly dragged him away until they reached a safe distance from which they started sprinting back to the camp. 

“Jigen, am I dreaming?” Lupin breathed out in wonder as they ran, only half his brain in the present and the other half left behind with the girl. 

“If you are, this would be the time to wake up,” Jigen breathlessly answers, his mind also processing what he had just witnessed. 

“What kind of institution is that… I found nothing when I was researching this area…” Lupin thinks out loud as they keep running, never slowing down. 

When they reach the clearing they take one look at their campsite and tense up again. Obvious signs of someone having disturbed the area are all over, the tent Lupin left on the ground has been moved, the camp stove lays knocked over and the food Jigen had put out to cook is gone. They ready themselves to pull out their weapons again and prepare for a confrontation as they step out of the trees. After a quick sweep they meet in the middle of the clearing having found nothing. Someone just robbed them of some sausages, and because of what they’d just happened upon they were more on edge than called for. Standing face to face, adrenaline high but with no outlet Lupin lets out a laugh and grabs Jigen by his shoulders. 

“Someone burgled us. _Us!_ ” He wheezes and Jigen joins him, chuckling and holding onto Lupin’s arms in turn. 

Some rustling in the bushes to the side of them is all the warning they get before a brown blur shoots out at them. Instinctively they both jump backwards out of each other’s arms just in time as the huge wild boar charges between them. Rearing its head wildly it manages to nick both of their legs with its tusks and fell them to the ground. Dazed and bruised, the confusion of being faced by a beast rather than man makes both men hesitate before pulling out their guns to defend themselves. 

Jigen, being the quickest of them, has his gun out and pointed only to discover that he’s left his chambers empty from when he cleaned it last, sometime well over two weeks ago when he first arrived in England. He hadn’t been able to carry his gun in all that time in between since he’d spent every day in his costume. He desperately pulls the trigger over and over to no avail as the boar turns and comes at them again. Realizing that he must depend on Lupin now he turns to his partner. Lupin is on the ground much like Jigen, but struggling to pull his gun out of the back of his pants, it has somehow gotten stuck on his belt. Both men left unarmed by cruel fate they can’t do much but stare at the tusks of death rushing at them in paralyzing fear. 

One moment the tusks are but a hairbreadth away from them, the next the boar is thrown off its legs and sent flying to the side crashing onto the earth in a flurry of movements. On top of it lies the girl sprawled out, as soon as they hit the ground she ungracefully scrambles off the wild animal onto her feet. She takes a few measured steps back and positions herself between the animal and the two shaken men. 

The boar grunts and growls as it rolls over and stands up again. It quickly spots her and assumes a steady stance in preparation for it’s next attack before it shoots forward at her. Unfazed by the beast the girl holds out her hands level with its head, and once it comes within her reach she grabs onto the tusks and, much like she’d done with the boulders, in a quick motion heaves the animal into the air and straightens her legs. 

Still sitting on the ground behind her Lupin and Jigen scramble backwards on all fours in fear of her planning on suplexing the animal, and in doing so, throwing it back down on them. They watch from their somewhat safer distance as she lets the momentum of lifting the animal gradually die until it is hovering in the air right above her head, its legs violently flopping about and making terrifying noises. Same as they’d witnessed her do before she holds the weight still over her head, or as still as the animal is willing to be, before she grips tighter onto the tusks and deliberatively puts effort into speeding up its downward decent. Not until the animal slams into the ground with such force that both Lupin and Jigen momentarily bounce into the air does she let it go and take a few more steps away from it. 

The boar stays down much longer than it did when she had tackled it, before it slowly gets back up on its feet. It morosely looks at the three humans, decides it’s a battle it is no longer willing to fight, and hobbles away in the opposite direction back into the woods. As it retreats Lupin tears his eyes off the animal and watches the girl as she turns around to give himself and Jigen a scrutinizing look. He’d observed previously that she looks perfectly normal, average size and height for a girl her age and absolutely nothing that betrays the immense strength hidden within her small form. She speaks with a somewhat shy yet authoritative voice as they stand up. 

“You don’t look wounded, that’s lucky. Boars are more dangerous than people think,” she declares while giving them a once over. 

Now that he’s on his feet again Lupin finally dislodges his gun from whatever hold his belt had had on it, the sudden release surprising him and his arm unintentionally shoots out from behind his back in Jigen’s direction. Jigen quickly ducks with his hands covering his head, bringing attention to the fact that he too is still holding his gun in his right hand. Lupin points his gun down and looks over at the girl to thank her for her assistance only to see a vacant look on her face. Maybe waving guns around a small child would scare them like that. 

“Yes, we were lucky at first, but I’m certain it is all thanks to you that we continued to stay that way,” he says and slowly lowers his gun to put it on the ground before his feet, motioning for Jigen to do the same before righting himself. 

“It’s all right, we are in fact on a hunting vacation! That’s all these are for, although maybe we could’ve used some more practice before heading out on our own,” he assures her and smiles his most genuinely warm smile. The girl continues to stare wide eyed and somewhat unfocused in their direction without meeting their eyes and Lupin sighs internally. Scared children are prone to run home to whatever guardian they have and tell them about the things that scared them, and men in the woods carrying guns could very well result in a concerned call being made to the police. 

“Hey, it’s all right, see? I’d like to thank you very much again, both of us do, we’re very grateful for your help. What’s your name?” He tries to soothe her with Jigen nodding along beside him. Gradually the girl looks to be calming down, her eyes becoming less intense and meeting their gazes, her body relaxing from the stiff posture she’d held. Eventually she looks completely normal again, and after taking another quick look at their guns on the ground she looks at Lupin and speaks. 

“You just pretended like you didn’t speak English very well before,” she says accusingly. He opens his mouth to explain it away with some white lie, but she turns on her heel and dashes away in the general direction of the institution before he has time to. 

Her small form quickly disappears among the trees, and in sync Lupin and Jigen breathe out a sigh of relief. 

The night falls as Lupin and Jigen pack up their things again having agreed upon it being safer in the car, both from the wilderness and potential visits from the police. On the walk back to the car they alternate between theorizing what might be wrong with the girl, what kind of institution it must be where they keep patients like her so covertly not even Lupin had heard a peep about it, discussing the job they were gonna start the following day, and falling into thoughtful periods of silence. 

They step out of the line of trees marking the edge of the woods onto the path where the car stands parked undisturbed. The breeze has gotten chillier with the setting of the sun, the very last rays painting faraway clouds in pinks and oranges. They’re unloading their luggage back into the car when a faint but distinct smell reaches them. The smell of smoke drifts past on the wind and upon Lupin’s enquiry Jigen assures him he packed the camp stove, and no, he didn’t throw any burning cigarette butts either. They look around, but none of the trees seem to be in danger. No smoke is rising from the forest, and yet there is a fire somewhere. 

Jigen yanks at Lupin’s sleeve and directs his attention with a pointing finger to the darkened sky down the road. Although the sun has set completely and the pink hue in the sky is gone, some faint orange still flickers in the distance barely above the crowns of the trees. It’s coming from the institution. They share a glance before sprinting down the road. 

Outside the gates of the institution a number of cars stand parked that weren’t there before, and a commotion is taking place on the inside. An uncontrolled fire is raging, ravaging the bushes by the main entrance and climbing up the front facade of the building effectively cutting off the most accessible exit. From their spot hunkered down behind the trees closest to the fence Lupin and Jigen have an open view of the front, west facing side, and the back of the building. 

By the glimpses they catch through windows, strange men who definitively do not belong in there are revealed seemingly raiding the place. They force patients and personnel into corners while they search room after room and leaving unnecessary messes and damage in their wake. 

Lupin strains to make out the faces of the men from this distance, if he knows of any of them maybe he’d also know why they were there and what they were doing. While he’s trying to concentrate on the identities of the attackers Jigen once again grabs ahold on his wrist and shakes it to get his attention. Lupin turns to look where Jigen is pointing. 

At the back of the building on the top floor a window opens and soon after the little girl steps up on the windowsill. She just stands there for a moment, looks over her shoulder once, makes up her mind and leaps for the semi-close branch of an old tree. She successfully makes the jump and scampers down the tree in a rush, skipping the lowest two branches and jumps straight for the firm earth. She hits the ground already running in a sort of hunched over way so as not to be attention grabbing to anyone on the inside potentially looking out a window. Her trajectory leads her straight toward the spot where Lupin and Jigen sit hidden on the other side of the fence. 

They rise as she gets closer to the fence, take some uncertain steps back as she quickly climbs over it, and let out hushed _woah’s_ and _hey’s_ when she runs into them. Unfortunately it does nothing to soothe her, and after recognizing them she buries one small fist in each of their collars and lifts them just enough to force them on their toes. She has to stand on her very tippy toes to manage it, height being the only issue, her strength never wavering. 

All three people warily eye each other, the girl’s lower lip trembling as she stares them down and chokes out in that small but tough voice. 

“Is this your fault?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Never mind me taking liberties with how big a wild boar's tusks are.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Saturday!

Thanks to, in part, a lot of rambling from Lupin and his quick tongue, in part by the trusting naivety of youth, the girl eventually released them. Lupin didn’t blame her for being suspicious of them, she had after all seen them with guns in the woods close by only a few hours earlier in the day. It was a minor blessing for him and Jigen that she was so young and accepted the reasons he gave her that would prove their innocence, like why would they be hiding outside if they were with those other men? An older child might not have accepted that as proof enough. At the same time she was a major inconvenience as they now found themselves responsible for a child with inhuman powers, and they still had a job to do. 

The situation evolved into them bringing her with them, and presently they were back in the car with the girl stuffed into the backseat among their packing. She sits quietly, calmer now than before but still wary of them. Lupin takes his eyes off her in the rear view mirror and focuses on the laptop he’s squished into his lap behind the wheel. She’d been unwilling to talk much and had not shared her name with him, or given any insight into what kind of place it was where she lived and if it had anything to do with the attack. Therefore he had turned to hacking his way to useful information instead. 

The institution turned up totally clean, which could either mean it really was, or that it was really dirty and wants to hide it badly. He hadn’t recognized the faces of any of the men he saw and he couldn’t find any trace of them online either. 

Lupin sighs deeply and slumps in his seat. Beside him Jigen lifts the corner of his hat to peek out at him with an eyebrow raised. Lupin looks tiredly back and reaches for the cigarette pack he keeps in the car door storage compartment. He pops one between his lips and Jigen moves to pull out a lighter in exchange for a cig of his own when the girl extracts herself from between the various bags to lean forward. Her head pops out between their seats and a small hand rests on Lupin’s shoulder. 

“Don’t smoke around me, _please_ ,” she sternly says, framing it as a request although it’s clear to everyone in the car that it is more of a command. The hand on Lupin’s shoulder squeezes into a death grip, setting off goosebumps across his skin. 

“I’m gonna take a smoke break, outside, because I wouldn’t ever want to expose a child to second hand smoke,” Lupin announces, his voice slightly more shrill than normal, and exits the car. He slams the door behind him and pauses for a second to look at the girl through the window, flash her a nervous smile, then steps away from the car before he lights his cigarette. 

Jigen wisely decides to put his lighter away before she sees him with it. He resettles into a comfortable position and spends a few minutes in silence alone in the car with the girl. He hears her take a breath a few times as if to say something but always changes her mind, until she finally decides on what to say. 

“You can call me Andromeda. I’ve lived at the physical rehab and research center as a patient for four years because I’m so strong. It’s just a normal place. The doctors thought at first that I had something that made me unable to feel pain, and that that was why I am able to push past normal limits, but it turned out they were wrong. Because no one still has any idea what’s wrong with me I am admitted for an undetermined amount of time. For my own good, I guess,” Andromeda plays with her hands as she talks and something about her voice sounds lighter, like she’s not as insecure as she’d sounded the previous times Jigen had heard her talk. 

He turns in his seat and looks at her. Wedged between bags full of equipment and tools as big as herself she looks so small, so much like a normal kid. But he knows she’s anything but. And yet, she’s just another kid who has found herself in an unfortunate situation that she has no control over. 

“That’s rough. For someone as young as you four years is a large chunk of your life. Hopefully they’ll figure it out soon,” he offers, somewhat unsure if it’s the right thing to say. Judging by the embarrassed look on her face he guesses maybe it wasn’t. 

“I thought you didn’t speak English at all! You’ve never said anything!” She squeaks, and the shyness is back in her voice. Apparently she’d only opened up because she’d thought he wouldn’t be able to understand. Jigen looks at her in surprise and blinks. The more he thinks about it the more he realizes she’s right, he hasn’t spoken in front of her even once so far. He pushes his hat over his eyes and excuses himself as he turns back around in his seat. Poor girl, this is not her day. 

“‘Andromeda’, huh?” Jigen says after a long pause in an attempt to ease the new tension building in the car. 

“It’s a fake name, duh. I don’t know you, I don’t want to give you my real name,” she grumbles defensively from the back. 

“You’re a smart kid to think ahead like that, but the name is a bit long. I’ll call you Annie,” Jigen says and looks at her through the mirror. She stubbornly keeps her eyes staring out the window but nods her approval. 

They don’t have to sit through the awkward silence much longer after that as Lupin enters the car again rubbing his hands together to get the chill out of them and grumbles as he picks the laptop up to resume his search for information. The hours drag on by, Lupin takes notes every now and then and Jigen keeps half an eye on Annie through the mirror. When he’s certain she’s fallen asleep he shares what little knowledge he’d gleaned from the conversation with Lupin before pushing his hat over his face to rest as well. 

Annie woke up shortly thereafter, sometime in the middle of the night. She stretches as much as the cramped backseat will allow and rubs the bleariness from her eyes. In what little moonlight there is streaming in though the windows she sees the men in the front seats sleeping too. The bearded one has leaned his seat as far back as possible and put his feet up to rest on the dashboard, the talkative one laying across the seats with his head in the other’s lap and his legs awkwardly sticking out the open window. The autumn night chill replacing the heat in the car was probably what woke her up in the first place, her thin shirt and pants not doing much to keep her warm unlike the clothes the men wear. 

She carefully leans over the overstuffed bags to look at the moon though the window. It’s a fairly clear sky and the moonlight nicely illuminates the trees around them, casting them in a glowing blue light. Although tired, she admires the beauty. After a while she yawns. Just when as she’s about to move back into her spot she catches a hint of movement out of the corner of her eye. She turns her head around and presses her face against the window to better see. 

It is then, when she’s distracted by something on their right, that hands grab ahold of Lupin’s ankles and swiftly yank him out through the open window. He has no chance to resist, and wakes up from the manhandling barely in time to let out a startled yelp that fades away with him as he goes. 

Annie yells in surprise in response to Lupin’s exclamation, and when she sees him missing from the spot where he’d just been she throws her arms around Jigen’s seat and shakes him until he fully wakes up. Jigen, waking up to a near stranglehold that Annie probably doesn’t even realize she’s got him in and Lupin shouting up a storm from outside the car, reaches for the keys first thing and turns the ignition on, further lighting up the area around the car. 

What they see are those mysterious men who earlier in the night burned the institution down. They surround the car in silence, the only noise being made by Lupin who soon shoots upright outside the window he was abducted through having fought off his attacker. Another one of the men step forward and puts his hands up when Lupin reels his fist back in preparation for a strike. 

“No need for any of that. We have no interest in you or your friend, all we want is for you to hand the girl over and you won’t be hurt,” the man, presumably the leader of the bunch tells Lupin. 

Inside the car Annie subconsciously grips tighter onto Jigen’s shoulders. Outside Lupin slowly lowers his arm and looks distrustingly at the leader. He peers his eyes hard and spins a full turn making a big show of counting the heads of all the men, then stopping to address the leader after he’s done. 

“So, you’re telling me that I and my partner will be safe if we just agree to leave a minor in the hands of sixteen strange men who showed up in the middle of the night after having committed arson not too long ago? I’d be a fool to turn that offer down!” Lupin puts enough acting into his delivery that it might have fooled one who didn’t catch the content of his sentence as he reaches across his chest under the lapel of his jacket. The leader catches the silent threat and scoffs. 

“Be reasonable, like you said there are sixteen of us and two of you,” the leader flatly says, not patient enough to deal with Lupin whom he views as nothing but an unforeseen hindrance. 

“I don’t know how!” Lupin declares and pulls his gun out as a handful of men all descend on him at once. One of them catches his right hand before he has time to take aim at any one of them. Lupin fights each man off as they come, although it’s impossible to dodge every blow that flies his way. 

In the car Jigen attempts to reach across the seats to hit the buttons that lock the doors, but his fingertips only graze over the backseat door button when his own door is wrenched open and he is grabbed by multiple pairs of hands that drag him out backwards. He flails his arms on the way out for a purchase to hold on to, at the very last second grabbing onto the edge of his seat. The hands that hold him are strong and his grip slips with every pull, that is until Annie bends around the seat from the back and takes his wrists in her hands. Carefully she drags him back, centimeter by centimeter, into the car. The men outside shout in protest and more of them join in, holding onto Jigen’s legs and his belt. Annie shifts her grip so that she’s holding onto his hands instead and gives a mightily pull. The men outside audibly grunt and huff from the effort of putting up a fight, making her smile a small self satisfied smile. 

Then Jigen grunts in pain from between clenched teeth and Annie gasps when she realizes she’s been practically crushing his hands while toying with their attackers. Seeing that there’s not much she can do for him like this without inflicting more pain than she’s willing to, she looks at Jigen apologetically before suddenly letting him go. The lack of resistance sends him shooting out in an instant, the men who’d held onto him hitting the ground and softening his fall. 

Lupin and Jigen both fight for all they’re worth but the sheer number of men and the close quarters they’re working in eventually sees them overwhelmed. A number of men keep them each immobile on either side of the car, Lupin on the ground and Jigen stuck in a headlock, and they are powerless to stop it when the back door is wrenched open and the girl pulled out. 

At first she yells but otherwise doesn’t really struggle, and shortly she quiets down. She is held between two men who walk her up to the leader’s side, one arm in each of their grips. The leader looks her over once and looks satisfied. Casually he steps over to Lupin and pulls out a modest gun as he laments out loud. 

“I hope you understand that this is your own doing. Even though I was graceful and gave you an easy way out you have forced my hand. And what a waste, had your loyalties been better aligned I’m sure you’d have made a near perfect subject,” he babbles as he lazily shuts one eye and sloppily aims at Lupin’s head. 

Under the pile of bodies weighing him down Lupin cranes his neck to disinterestedly look back at the leader. A few steps behind him a white fabric gently blowing in the breeze brings his attention to the fact that Annie is right there and she’ll see what’s about to happen. Lupin feels a moment of regret that a child will witness what will most likely be a very gruesome scene and he bends his neck to its limit to assure her that she’ll be fine, and to ask her to close her eyes. Though when he sees her face he exhales without uttering a word and quietly observes her. 

If she’d been making a scared or disgusted face he wouldn’t have thought twice, screaming would’ve been normal, perfect silence too if it was accompanied by horror or fear. Annie’s face displayed none of the above, instead she had that same vacant expression she’d had before in the woods when she spotted his and Jigen’s guns. It was such a nonspecific emotion, just complete neutrality paired with a thousand yard stare. Like she was so unbothered she decided to check out until it was over and things started happening again. 

Above Lupin the leader stops talking after saying his final few parting words to the thief. 

“May god show you mercy, for I will not,” he says and stands straight as he perfects his aim to shoot. 

A couple of things happen in quick succession after that. Annie’s head snaps around, her gaze firmly fixed on the gun in the leader’s hand. Her palms shoot out, connecting with the chests of the men hanging onto her arms and sending them sailing through the air to land among the trees. As she takes a purposeful step toward the leader she stomps her foot down into the ground sending a quake through the earth that shakes the men on their feet and vibrates in Lupin’s chest. 

Startled by the turn of events and slightly thrown off balance, the leader misses his shot by centimeters. Lupin hears it whiz past his ear and make contact with the dirt behind his head. Annie walks up to the leader without pause and twists the gun out of his hand, her other hand balling up the front of his shirt in preparation to throw him too into the woods. She shucks the gun at the speed of a projectile missile far over the trees after him and watches it disappear into the distance for a moment before she turns back to the situation at hand. 

Lupin watches her bend down toward him completely disregarding the four men piled on top of him, and feels her lithe hands burrow in under their bodies to hook under his arms. She lifts him to his feet while shaking the men off of him as if they weighed nothing before she stuffs him back through the window into the drivers seat. Lupin lands in a heap on his face but recovers in an instant. Annie is already turning away from him but he catches the still dead look in her eyes. 

“Annie?” He asks but receives no response as she walks away. Lupin sits up behind the wheel and revs the engine prepared to take off as he watches her round the car. A man tries to walk up behind her and stop her by putting his arms around her waist when she’s passing right in front of the car, giving Lupin an excellent view of her closed fist flying over her shoulder and colliding with the man’s nose. The man curses as blood instantly flows from his broken nose, Annie not flinching once on her way toward the men holding Jigen. 

She rounds the car and reaches to grab Jigen. The two men who’d been holding his arms and preventing him from breaking out of the headlock a third man’s got him in retreat when she approaches. The third man, an individual tall enough to hold Jigen up in the air, steadfastly remains and carefully keeps Jigen between himself and Annie as a sort of human shield. Jigen looks sort of sleepy from the prolonged lack of air and weakly lifts his hands to hold on to the arm around his throat to ease some of the pressure. 

Through the passenger window Lupin sees Annie hesitate for the first time since she entered the trance like state. Her hand pauses midway and hovers in the air and her head ever so slightly tilts to the side in a thinking gesture. Just as Lupin is starting to feel like maybe her heroics have come to an end, her hovering hand shoots out and grabs the man’s elbow, her other hand taking his wrist and forcing his hand off Jigen’s head. 

Although it gives Jigen enough slack to break free she doesn’t stop, she continues to force the man’s arm out and down while holding his elbow firmly in place until a loud snap rings out through the air. The man shouts in pain and crumbles as Annie turn back to the car assuring herself that Jigen has jumped back in before she forgoes the blocked backseat door and instead opts to climb in through the sunroof. Lupin hits the gas as soon as both her legs dangle down through the roof and speeds off into the night. 

\- 

Somewhere far away, on a similar gravelly path in another corner of the woods Lupin stops after a reckless getaway. Him and Jigen both sit stiffly a few moments, unwilling to face Annie quite yet lest she starts blaming them again for those men having shown up in her life. When they do turn it is to find her back to normal. She sits slouching and looking small again, hanging her head in something that might be shame. 

After some inquiring by Lupin she admits to sometimes, when she feels helplessly stressed or unsafe, losing control and becoming violent, hence why she goes into the woods to lift rocks every now and then in an attempt to exhaust some of the strength. When she receives no judgmental remarks or unhelpful opinions she lifts her head. 

“I wonder how you got that way,” Jigen hums and combs his fingers through his beard. Lupin just scratches his head and nods with a thoughtful expression on his face. Annie looks from one man to the other and then back again before asking them who they are. Lupin stops scratching and smooths his hair back down. 

“Lupin the Third, gentleman thief and savior of little girls in distress! And my partner and gunman, Jigen!” Lupin introduces them and moves his hand from his head to offer her a handshake. 

“And I hear you are Andromeda, the strongest girl alive. I believe we can help each other out!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "The Girl"™ has a name now!ヽ(･∀･ )ﾉ


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter huh

Annie falls back asleep half sitting, half laying over bags some hours later on the brink of dawn. Lupin and Jigen opt for staying awake, eventually moving out of the car to share a well needed cigarette and hold a quiet conversation. Jigen mulls over what organization or gang the men might be from, how they knew about Annie and what they want from her. He passes the cigarette to Lupin and pulls his gun out to finally reload it, way overdue. 

“About time,” Lupin speaks out of the corner of his mouth as he glances at Jigen mechanically going through the familiar motions. His own gun unfortunately got left behind, he’d lost his grip on it in the scuffle before Annie intervened. He leans against the car and takes a deep drag. Jigen puts his gun away and looks at Lupin. 

“You didn’t find anything that might be relevant then?” He asks, referencing the research Lupin had been doing earlier on the laptop. Lupin breathes out a cloud of smoke that dissolves in the damp morning air before he speaks. 

“They’re not part of anything big. At least not something that we would consider big, so maybe I just didn’t look hard enough, but I have a hunch,” he answers. At Jigen’s expectant silence he continues. 

“I find it curious how we’re here to extract King Arthur’s sword, and all of a sudden this little girl with immense strength is practically dropped at our feet. It reminds me of the legends of Arthur, how he pulled the sword from a rock, y’know? And then this man who behaves as if he thinks he is above others, royal if you will, shows up and demands we hand her over to him,” Lupin takes one last quick drag before placing the rest of the cigarette between Jigen’s lips. 

“Sounds like you might be right. If this other guy is after the sword he might be after her too for that exact purpose. But how did he know about us?” Jigen asks around the cigarette. 

“He didn’t, just like we didn’t know about him. It’s all a coincidence,” Lupin says and waves his hand in front of his face to dissipate the smoke before he opens the door to hop back into the car. 

“One hell of a coincidence. I guess that’s why you proposed to her that we stick together,” Jigen puffs. 

“With her we don’t need equipment or explosives, just send her into the lake to pluck the sword out of the bottom et voilà, job done, easy peasy! Why let such an opportunity slip when we’ve suddenly got competition. You coming or what?” Lupin asks from the drivers seat about to close the door behind him, nodding his head at Jigen to get in too. 

“Yeah yeah, I’m just gonna take a leak,” Jigen says and puts the cigarette out on the sole of his shoe and moves toward the trees. 

Lupin shuts the door and waits. Over his shoulder the sound of soft even breaths drift from the backseat and he turns to look at Annie’s sleeping form. Looks really can be so deceiving, who would think just by looking at her that she could throw a man several dozen meters without even trying? Lupin smiles and shakes his head, he cannot let himself be blinded by the potential of having a strongman from the fact that she is still a child. He shrugs out of his jacket and carefully tucks it around her shoulders. 

No sooner had Jigen walked behind the closest tree among some bushes and turned his back when the distinct sound of a foot stepping on crunchy leaves sounded behind him. Acting on reflex he spins and pulls his gun on one of the many men out after the girl. 

It’s all wrong. The man already stood with his hands held up in the air and makes no move to either protect himself or to disarm Jigen when the barrel locks onto him. Jigen’s eye twitches and a split second later he flings himself around again, experienced enough to recognize a trap when he’s walked into one. The blunt end of something heavy knocks him over the head before he can make it. 

Lupin checks his watch for the second time and scoffs, how long can it take to piss? He scans the forest edge outside the window and lands on Jigen just stepping out from the underbrush. Lupin’s impatient frown eases and he leans on the backrest. However, his relief doesn’t last long. Jigen walks unsteadily with his head lolling, and when he trips on a rock he falls flat on his face and stays down, not quite unconscious but definitively out of it. 

Frown back on his brow Lupin steps out of the car and starts walking toward Jigen. As he gets closer he sees that Jigen’s hands have been ziptied together behind his back. Before Lupin can call out to him, or act, or do anything, the gang of men step out of the woods all around the car just like last time. 

For a second Lupin stares round eyed in surprise at how quickly they were found out in the middle of nowhere before he runs back to the car, throws the back door open and drapes himself over their bags to shake Annie awake. She startles and looks at him in confusion. 

“You pretty much know these woods like the back of your hand, don’t you?” He asks and does his best to take up as much space as possible to block her view of the outside. The longer she can stay calm the better his chances are of sending her away before anyone gets shot. They’d had the element of surprise last time but Lupin knew not to rely on luck too much, once he started doing that luck had a way of pulling the rug out underneath him. 

“I- yes, I know where we are…?” Annie nervously answers and looks appropriately concerned. Instinctively clutching his jacket around herself for comfort she tries to look around him but he keeps their eyes locked. 

“It’s gonna be fine, remember what we agreed on? We’re gonna help each other, I’ll deal with this and later you’ll help us with our job, right? Don’t look, don’t get scared or mad or you might do something you’ll regret, trust me-“ he reaches around her and opens the other door just as someone grabs his ankles and pulls him back, making him smash face down on the ground barely catching himself on his hands in time. 

“Run! Don’t think, don’t look!” He calls to Annie and holds his breath until he hears light footfalls sprinting away. He’d been right in betting on her fear of losing control to win out against her bravery. If she had been older he could’ve asked her to handle this for him, and he could’ve gone to check on Jigen. His hands are zip tied behind his back and he lifts his face from the dirt, now is not the time for what-ifs. 

From the position on his stomach his view is of the underside of the car, and there Lupin sees a small red flashing light in the shadows. He slowly closes his eyes and rests his forehead on the ground again in annoyance and berates his own negligence to detect a satellite tracker in time. Somewhere behind him footsteps approach and stop by his side. The voice of the gang’s leader expresses further disappointment at him for having decided to work against him instead of joining his following, and for having assisted the girl’s escape twice. An order to place Lupin and Jigen in two of their own cars is called out and shortly thereafter Lupin is lifted up by his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for reference, Annie is meant to be 13y/o or so   
> And I realize now that this chapter is ridiculously short, I’ll upload ch6 tomorrow to make up for it Y(-_-)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pls note that I have added the graphic violence tag, just in case

Lupin allows his and Jigen’s abduction to take place as the greater the distance between these men and Annie gets, the better. Per command they are driven away in two separate cars, a thoughtful precaution that even Zenigata often overlooks. Not that Lupin was planning on escaping this time anyways. The route they take is almost the exact same one Lupin chose when escaping from the previous ambush, and in going back to such an otherwise inconsequential place it makes him feel certain that his suspicion was right. These men too are looking for the fabled sword of the lake. 

Lupin is adamantly sure of this when he and Jigen shortly thereafter find themselves on the beach of the lake that had been their destination from the start, where they are pushed into kneeling positions in the damp sand side by side. 

“You got a plan?” Jigen asks under his breath. He can stay upright without swaying now and his words are clear. 

“Eh, we’ll wing it,” Lupin answers with a casual shrug of his shoulders as the leader of the men walks up in front of them. He looks down at them with his chin held high, and when he talks he articulates every word carefully. 

“Now then, let us talk. As far as I can tell you two are some duo of burglars or such, hence the guns. Why you got it in your heads that you could save the girl eludes me, as it obviously is beyond your capabilities,” he says. 

“I think we actually did a pretty good job, what do you think Jigen?” Lupin immediately counters and looks at Jigen for confirmation. 

“I don’t see her around,” Jigen concurs and pretends to search the area around him, even looking over his shoulders for her. 

“Not right now, no, but once I’ve gotten rid of you I’ll catch her soon enough. But that’s beyond the point. The point is you knew about her and were going to take her away from me, which means you must’ve known that the rock the sword sits in cannot be broken by any machine or other external force hence why you stole the girl out of my hands,” the leader turns away from them as he speaks and walks a few steps. 

“And if that is the case then you also know about the sword, and I simply cannot allow that,” he stops some paces away and looks over the lake at the rising sun. 

“Hey you-“ Lupin begins. 

“Do not _‘you’_ me, my name is Richard-“ the leader, name now revealed, spins on his heel and bores his eyes into Lupin’s. He is interrupted in turn as Lupin immediately perks up upon hearing the name. 

“HEY DICK!” Lupin shouts at the top of his lungs, his eyes glittering with mirth and drawing a soft chuckle out of Jigen who shakes his head. 

“Dick, you’re telling me you just saved us the effort of having to find that out ourselves? Nice!” Lupin continues with a broad grin. Richard pauses at that and squints his eyes at them in annoyance when he realizes he’s told them something they apparently didn’t know. 

“Now you know, and now you’ll have to die,” he eventually says and looks above them at the men standing behind them and inclines his head. 

Hands grab at their arms from behind and pull them to their feet. They are steered by pushes and shoves at their backs to the waters edge where they receive one final hard shove that send them stumbling into the cold lake. 

“I’m really not in the mood for a pedicure,” Lupin deadpans and turns around to look at Richard. The man in question as well as a few of the others have pulled out their guns and have them pointed at his and Jigen’s backs. Richard smirks cockily and waves his gun in a silent command for Lupin and Jigen to keep walking into the water. 

Lupin holds his gaze for a contemplative moment before he turns to Jigen and nods for him to come along while mumbling about wet socks. They walk slowly, feeling the lake bottom with their feet before taking each step. The water stays relatively evenly shallow the first few meters before the bottom slopes down in a steep decline. When they reach that point two mere steps are enough to bring the water level from their shins to their chests. Jigen stops and regards the black water engulfing his body. 

“Now would be the time to come up with a plan, Lupin,” he says with just the tiniest hint of worry in his voice. 

“There’s a knife strapped my to inner left shin, you’ll have to pull my pant leg up and grab it for me, we’ll cut ourselves free with that. Now follow me,” Lupin smoothly answers and takes another step. His head drops beneath the surface of the water and he becomes impossible to spot even for Jigen who is standing not even a meter away from him. Jigen takes a breath in preparation for the submersion when the voice of a young child rings out through the air. 

Jigen spins around and spots Annie rushing out of the woods towards the beach completely ignoring the gang that still stands there supervising the at-gunpoint self inflicted drowning. She’s exaggeratedly waving her arms and hollering at him and the recently disappeared Lupin. 

“Lupin! Annie came back!” Jigen calls out as he watches the scene on land. A second later Lupin’s head pops back up next to Jigen shaking the water from his face. Lupin blows water out of his nose and squints in the faint morning light until he spots Annie at the edge of the water waving and shouting. He grins and calls back to her. 

“Annie, it’s good to see you! Although, you are kind of breaking our deal here,” his tone is cheery as he shouts across the water as if he were shouting across a busy street to an acquaintance. Annie stops waving and instead plucks an object out of the pocket of Lupin’s jacket which she has put on. It is entirely too big on her and the sleeves have been rolled up to allow her to use her hands. Once she has it in her hand she holds the thing up in the air to show it to Lupin and Jigen. 

“I know, but I didn’t mean to! I was gonna run home but something in the pocket of your jacket kept hitting my leg, so I looked, and I found this thingamajig!” The thing is a robust metal box perfectly sized to fit in the palm of a hand. It has an antenna, a display and an arrange of buttons. 

“I think I accidentally turned it on, and it beeped when I walked in a specific direction, so I followed!” Annie explains. Out in the water Lupin breathes a soft sound in understanding. She had found the tracker localizer that he always keeps with him. He’s made sure that when on a job, his partners and himself always wear a tracker so that whenever a situation gets them a little too good the others can swoop in. 

“That’s a specialized piece of technology that you just figured out by yourself, and if I had my hands free I would applaud! But I think it’s time for you to go now!” He calls back. 

“No, I’m gonna help!” Annie shouts with determination. She looks down at the lazy waves lapping at the beach and takes a step into the shallow water. Halfway through her second step Richard addresses her. 

“Stop,” he commands. Annie stops and looks over her shoulder at him. He has walked up behind her though he’s still maintaining a safe distance, and as she turns he lifts his gun at her. 

“You will not help anyone but me,” he says, voice rumbling low in his chest as he stares into her eyes. 

Even from a distance and with her back now turned to them Lupin and Jigen can see Annie steadily return the stare. Her posture that had previously been slightly curled in on herself from the cold water seeping into her shoes is replaced by a straight backed stance. Just from her physical cues they could guess what was happening, and the look on Richard’s face only confirmed what they thought. 

“Don’t try any of that. You are strong, not bulletproof,” Richard sneers and cocks his gun as he levels it with her chest. When that fails to intimidate her and she starts walking at him at a brisk pace he fires a warning shot into the sand before her feet. To his dismay it does nothing and Annie approaches uninterrupted. She is a threat that he needs to control without harming, for if she goes he won’t be able to extract the sword from the rock, ever. 

Lupin and Jigen watch with the hope that the situation might just be resolved very soon growing. Annie has almost reached Richard when Jigen turns to Lupin. 

“Lupin, the knife! Give me your leg!” Jigen hisses, the thought of being free and out of the water an exciting prospect. Lupin agrees that it is high time to get out of there and attempts to lift his leg in an approximation of where Jigen’s hands would be under the water when another shot rings out from the beach. A split second later the bullet whizzes past in the narrow space between them and they both instantly duck under the surface. 

It was a guess on Richard’s part to shoot at the men. It had been a good guess too as it had almost instantly brought the girl out of her emotionally detached trance, her eyes widening and fear creeping into her expression before she whipped around to scan the lake for any signs of the two thieves. They were no longer where they had been, only Jigen’s hat floated serenely on the bobbing waves. Richard didn’t know if he had actually hit one of them or not, the shot had been a blind one as his desperation to stop her had grown until he was willing to try anything. It didn’t matter either way, if he had he could threaten to off the other one too if she didn’t obey, if he hadn’t he could call it a warning shot. 

The echoing of the shot dies down over the still lake as Annie’s breaths grow uneven and ragged. She keeps staring at the hat in anticipation. They have to resurface soon, even if one got hurt the other is there to hold them up. She stares until her eyes grow dry. She blinks hard and tears up as she rubs at her eyes. 

A loud splashing followed by gasping breaths travel over the lake. Annie looks up through her teary eyes and lands on Jigen with his mouth agape gulping down air, hat miraculously having happened upon his head slightly askew when he resurfaced. She is staring at him, dripping wet and out of breath, when Lupin too shoots up beside him similarly gasping for air. After somewhat regaining his composure Lupin shouts at Richard to be more careful, then turns to lowly address Jigen. 

“You got the knife, what happened?” He asks and pulls his arms apart as far as the zipties allow to illustrate how he’s still tied up. 

“The water is so cold my fingers got stiff, I dropped it, okay?” Jigen mutters back, clearly also displeased. 

“Ay ai ai, Jigen,” Lupin tuts. 

On the beach Richard clears his throat to bring Annie’s attention away from the thieves and back to himself. When she’s looking at him again he waves his gun in their general direction and speaks. 

“If you want these men to live you will do as I say, accidents do so easily happen when people disobey me,” he evenly says. Annie clenches her teeth but nods her head slowly. Richard orders her to step away from the water and in her place he steps up to the water’s edge dead straight in front of Lupin and Jigen. He then raises both his hands into the air with the palms facing the lake. 

“In the name of the ancestor, show me the path to King Arthur’s sword,” he commands. 

Starting at the beach at Richard’s feet the water splits and pulls back to either side to reveal the sandy bottom, creating a path that travels further and further into the lake. Lupin and Jigen suddenly find themselves no longer chin deep in water as the path manifests around them, the water drawing away from them to create gently swaying walls on either side. They look in unison out over the lake and behold the water retreating, as it goes deeper out the lake the walls grow taller. 

Richard orders two men to go first to secure Lupin and Jigen before he strides down the sandy path with Annie in tow and the rest of his crew trailing behind. 

After following the path to its end they end up standing in a circular room that the water has created in its absence centered around a boulder that sticks up out of the sandy lake bottom. Sunken halfway into the rock is an antique looking sword, it’s blade still sharp and untainted by the mark of time. 

About halfway to the rock Lupin and Jigen are stopped by hands on their shoulders before they’re thrown down on the mud. Their guards remain behind them while the rest of the men spread out around the boulder. They roll over on their backs to easier observe what happens. 

Richard with Annie following walks up to the rock. He looks up at the sword sticking out of it some meters into the air and grins, his face filled with awe and fulfillment. 

“How many times have I been here now, in vain breaking tools upon tools and trying out every explosive known to man? Today, it will be mine. Today, I will become the new king of England,” he says to no one in particular. After a few more heavy breaths of overwhelming emotion he shoots a look at Annie and nods at the rock, implying that he expects her to pull the sword out of it. 

Annie furrows her brow but starts walking, then stops again and turns back to Richard. After briefly hesitating she speaks. 

“What do you mean?” She asks him, confusion momentarily outweighing fear. Instead of yelling, sneering or refusing her an answer Richard laughs, at first just a small laugh but it quickly grows into a full belly laugh. 

“I mean that I will be the new king of England as is my birthright. I am a direct descendant in the long bloodline of Arthur himself, how else would you expect me to hold the power to command the lady of the lake to obey my will?” He pridefully boasts of his ancestry as if it in any way would impress upon her a sense of wonder. Richard looks smug for another moment before his expression falls somewhat. 

“I am the eldest living son and therefor rightful ruler, however, I am unfortunately not the only living descendant. It has taken me awhile to find you, but when I did I knew you were the one. We are both needed to reclaim the heirloom of our ancestor,” Richard disdainfully looks at Annie, openly displeased at admitting that he needs help in obtaining the sword that he considers his alone. 

“Why did you think you were so strong? You were made to pull the sword out of the rock, so do it,” Richard keeps his eyes trained on the sword and makes a vague waving gesture with his hand to hurry her on. 

Annie stays where she is. Gradually her face becomes more and more conflicted the longer she thinks his words over. This man, king? And it’s her fate to realize his? Minutely she starts shaking her head, then more as she backs ways from him. 

“No, no way am I gonna be responsible for you becoming king,” she says, her squeaky voice barely above a whisper. Richard sternly looks at her and for every step back she takes, he stalks after menacingly. Slowly he pulls his gun out and flashily spins it on his finger before gripping it. 

“Strong, but not invincible, remember? Now do as I say,” he growls. 

Annie walks backwards until her heels hit something solid and she trips. She lands on the sandy bottom with her back hitting a pair of legs. She cranes her head up and her eyes meet those of one of the guards, and when she looks down on the ground again she sees that she has tripped over Jigen’s lying form, her legs still resting over his stomach. Sandwiched between a follower and the leader of the following himself, with the middle of the room to one side and the narrow path in the other, her only choice is to position herself parallel to Jigen and try to escape. Throwing her upper body by Jigen’s legs she hastily starts to crab-walk toward the entrance but stops when Richard catches up and towers over her on the other side of Jigen with his gun pointed at her. 

Unarmed, tied up, and sunken down in the soft mud on his back Jigen knows he has no protection to offer the child from a maniac who’s supposed to be her relative. He could kick the gun out of Richard’s hand, but then what? In a futile attempt to offer her some form of comfort he bends his knees to hide her small form next to his from Richard. Jigen fixes a challenging stare at Richard who just disbelievingly stares back at him, until he feels a small hand on his leg and looks back at Annie. Her face is filled with admiration and gratefulness for him, and yet sadness tarnishes the edges of those emotions. They both know there is nothing he can really do for her and Jigen starts to feel a bit stupid as she is stronger than anyone else out of all the people at the bottom of the lake. 

The cocking of Rickard’s gun is immediately followed by a shot, and Jigen’s knee explodes in a spray of red. Jigen cries out in excruciating pain as his shot out knee falls slack to the ground and the rest of him tenses up, Annie simultaneously takes her hand off his leg with a startled scream. 

From his own spot in the mud just some meters away Lupin sees it all happen and screws his face up and hisses in sympathy. Jigen who has thrown his head back and screwed his eyes shut trying to control the pain doesn’t see the internal struggle on Annie’s face. At first she shoots forward to hold him, but then stops, her face rapidly cycling through emotions. She is furious, horrified, sorrowful, frightened. 

Lupin closely watches her and for a second he fears she’ll cycle all the way back to furious and land there and go on a lethal rampage, though who it’d be the most lethal for he can’t say for sure. His major concern being if it were for Richard it’d be deadly for them all, because who would keep the water at bay if he went? To try and save all of their skins Lupin yells whatever reassurances he can think of to Annie. 

“Annie, it’s okay, it’s just a knee! Stay calm, do you hear me? Stay with me, you don’t really want to hurt people, do you?” He calls out trying to sound convincingly calm. Annie sits perfectly still and stares blankly at Jigen who’s writhing and groaning by her side. She has that telltale thousand yard stare that makes Lupin anxiously bite his bottom lip in tense anticipation. 

Then she blinks and bursts into tears, she wails and apologizes between clattering teeth and sobs that wrack through her body. Richard unceremoniously grabs her by the arm and roughly pulls her to her feet, forcing her over Jigen’s body to his side. She holds her breath for a second as she carefully steps over Jigen without touching any part of him before she falls back into uncontrollable despair. Richard bends down to her level and snarls in her face. 

“If you don’t do as I say, _right now_ , it’ll get much worse for them,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will project my childish humor onto Lupin any day of the week, also, yikes, sorry Jigen :s  
> Also also, this is the second to last chapter! We’re almost there!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank god it's over

Richard drags Annie back to the boulder and throws her against it. She catches herself against its rough slippery surface and swallows her sobs. She lifts her head and glances over at Lupin for guidance not knowing what to do. 

“Don’t worry about it, do as he says,” Lupin assures her. Annie hold his gaze for another moment and then nods. She takes a step back from the rock and breathes deeply in, then exhales slowly. Her right fist clenches by her side as she eyes the rock. After a quick estimation she reels her fist back and brings it down upon the hard surface. 

Almost like thunder a deafening crack booms in the hollowed out area, echoing back and forth between the watery walls. When Lupin takes a second looks he realizes that the boulder has been split in half. A clattering metallic sound rings through the air, and soon the sword finishes falling down through the crack and lands at Annie’s feet. She picks it up with complete disinterest and hands it right over to Richard who takes it, reverence schooling his expression into something humble that Lupin so far had not seen on him. 

Richard turn his back to Annie and the rock, and holds the sword up with both hands in the air above him. His followers, or knights perhaps Lupin thinks, all kneel where they stand and bow their heads. They stay like that as the seconds tick on by until Annie carefully breaks the silence. 

“Um, you- your majesty? Will you let me and the men go now, please? We won’t ge- get in your way anymore,” she stutters slightly from nervousness. 

Richard slowly lowers the sword and looks over at Lupin and Jigen. His eyes glide over Jigen easily enough but get stuck on Lupin. He lets the sword go with his right hand and instead uses it to point at the wall of water behind Lupin. 

“Drown…” he drawls and lowers his arm to point from the wall down to Lupin. 

“…him,” he commands the water. 

A swirling tube of water, almost reminiscent of an appendage, extrudes from the wall in a swooping motion and crashes down on Lupin, covering him from head to mid waist. Lupin immediately starts thrashing and struggling to get away but the water smoothly follows him whichever way he turns. No longer able to keep calm Annie rushes to Richard and clings onto his clothes, begging him for mercy. 

“But you have the sword! Stop! Please!” Annie cries the first part at Richard and the latter at the water. 

“You cannot command her, that was my ability alone to inherit,” Richard says, pleased and amused by the situation. 

“Why?” Annie starts crying again, repeating the question between heavy sobs. Richard hums while he contemplates her question, then points at Lupin again. 

“That one is the one calling the shots between the two of them. He decided they would oppose me, and now I am punishing him accordingly. A traitor to the king can never be pardoned,” Richard explains calmly as Lupin keeps rolling about on the mud without success. He then glances back at Jigen. 

“But if his partner can manage it, I’ll let him go,” Richard chuckles at the dirty look he receives from Jigen who obviously won’t be walking anywhere anytime soon with his ruined knee. Jigen swallows down his pain and starts yelling, alternating between profanities and curses aimed at Richard to calling out for Lupin to hold out. 

The sloshing water, Jigen’s hoarse yelling, Annie’s crying and Richard’s growing laughter mingle in the air in a cacophony. Seeing that nothing is getting any better Jigen helplessly looks at Lupin who has slowed down in his movements but occasionally still jerks, perhaps involuntarily. Once again Jigen feels stupidly useless and wishes he had his gun in his hand. He swears and struggles against his bonds. 

It strikes him then that it has gotten quiet. Only Richard can still be heard practically purring in delight, but Annie has stopped crying. He turns his head and looks over at them. Richard stands in front of Annie gleefully watching Lupin’s struggling cease, behind him Annie is expressionlessly staring at the back of his head. Her posture is once again straight backed and stiff as she stands there still as a statue. 

Jigen’s eyes widen when she reaches up with both hands and clamps down around Richard’s neck. Her fingers squeeze and Richard yells in surprise and mild pain. She continues squeezing, gradually adding more and more pressure until her nails break his skin and blood seeps out and pools under her fingernails. 

Richard’s men realize what’s happening and rise to their feet to try and stop her at the same time as Jigen experiences the same sudden fear Lupin had felt before. If Richard dies, what will happen to this room they all are in? The men all rush to the middle of the room where the two descendants stand, and Jigen shouts. 

“ _Andromeda!_ ” He yells her name as loud as he can but doesn’t get through. Annie gives a final hard squeeze and after letting out a wet gurgle Richard’s eyes roll back in his skull as his throat is punctured clean through by ten slim fingers. His neck divided into two equal parts in her hands, Richard’s mouth falls open with one last nauseating splutter and his body hangs slack from her grip. Blood flows thickly over her hands and down her arms, it sprays over her face and she doesn’t even blink. 

Jigen has seen some gruesome things in his days, but this is so unreal that he finds himself captivated by the scene. Everything is perfectly visible, the windpipe, the muscles and tendons, punctured blood vessels leaking like there’s no tomorrow, the vertebrae of the spine shining white from underneath a sluggishly flowing waterfall of blood. 

Then Annie tears the two handholds she’s created out of the neck in opposite directions and splits the body further open, and Jigen finally has to turn his eyes away before he can get sick. Some of Richard’s followers do, stopping in their tracks and doubling over, others just giving up the hope of saving him, and a brave soul or two reach her but do not try to restrain her. 

A choke, cough, and gasp attracts Jigen’s attention instead. The watery limb is gone and Lupin is on his side couching up his lungs. For a second Jigen is relieved before he remembers his previous fear and whips his head the other way to look at the wall. The wall behind them, all the walls of the room and the pathway in fact, are swaying and wavering dangerously. From the top water starts to cascade down into the room in thin sheets that grow thicker and more uneven as the walls sway harder, losing the rigidity they’d had. 

Richard’s followers observe the same and flee as fast as their feet will take them, leaving the three captives behind as they rush through the already narrow and rapidly more narrowing pathway. Lupin coughs and sits up to get out of the water. 

By the boulder with a mangled corpse at her feet Annie blinks slowly a few times. The world comes back into focus and she feels something warm and wet covering her hands. She bends and washes them off and notices something strange. Richard’s body is laying in knee high water, but she is not wet. The water continues rising as she finishes washing the blood off and straightens up. When it reaches up to her waist the shape of a bubble forming around her becomes more obvious and she stares in wonder. The bubble is completed when it closes above her, encapsulating her at the bottom of the lake. Through the water she can make out blurry shapes a little bits away and with a start she remembers the thieves. 

Lupin sits and breathes and studies the bubble. He tries standing up and discovers that it grows to accommodate his height. Other than that it does nothing, it is just a bubble for him to exist in. Something in the water moves and he places his face right up against the wall and squints his eyes at the shape. Shortly Annie bursts through the wall giving him a righteous headbutt as they collide. Lupin staggers for a moment before Annie grabs his arms and steadies him. 

“Are you alright?” She asks. 

Jigen wishes he could sit up, he had tried to but his knee hadn’t liked it. That’s why he’s still on his back in some kind of magical bubble when Lupin and Annie walk into it and just sort of merge bubbles of their own with his, creating a singular big one. 

Nobody mentions Richard as Annie snaps the plastic ties around their wrists and lifts Jigen in her arms, though Jigen protests and calls for Lupin to carry him instead. Lupin waves his complaints away with a sob story about his his lungs are still burning. Although she can manage it is awkward because of how much taller Jigen is, his feet almost drag on the ground. Before they leave for the beach the water spits out Lupin and Jigen’s guns as well as the sword onto the mud in front of them, eliciting a halfhearted cheer from the men. Lupin picks the items up and the trio starts walking. 

They stay silent and take their time, both for Lupin’s lungs sake, but also so that Annie will jostle Jigen as little as possible. Halfway to the shore Jigen points out a dark shape in the water floating above them. Lupin and Annie spot what he is referring to and Annie lets out a small gasp as she recognizes the shape of a person. 

“Hello? Could you perhaps not kill the other men, just… keep them until I can call the police?” She says to the water, unsure of where to look. The water stills around them. It then vibrates, creating thousands of small ripples on the surface of their bubble as a resonating sound almost like a voice seems to say something in the affirmative in response to her request. 

“Good thinking. It’ll make for a great gift for Pops too after the way we fooled him earlier,” Lupin smiles. When Annie asks how and why he fooled his father Lupin laughs for real and tells her about their long history with Zenigata. 

“Oh. I don’t want him to catch you,” she says when he pauses for breath. 

“Pops is a good man, but I am a better thief,” Lupin says with a confident wink. They fall into another short period of silence before Lupin, recovering just as quickly as he grows restless, starts talking. 

“Say, wasn’t the mythological Andromeda saved by a spirit of the sea as well?” He muses out loud. 

“A god. She was saved by a god from a monster in the sea,” Jigen informs him. 

“Well, close enough,” Lupin shrugs and starts whistling a light tune. 

“I didn’t know that, I chose it after the galaxy,” Annie chimes in, and just like that the depressive atmosphere lifts somewhat. 

They step out of the water back on dry land again just as the sun in its entirety rises over the horizon. Annie puts Jigen down on the sand and turns to watch Lupin catch up. Lupin trudges up to the two of them, and upon reaching them hands Jigen back his gun after stuffing his own down the back of his pants. Then he tries to hand the sword to Annie. He holds it out horizontally, resting it on both palms and bows slightly while giving her a soft smile. 

“I believe this is yours now, little princess,” he says and slightly bobs the sword up and down, encouraging her to claim it. Annie briefly looks at the sword without much interest, then back up at Lupin. Instead of taking it she tells them something she so far hasn’t trusted the thieves with. 

“My name is Selene,” her eyes stay focused on his face as she awaits his response. Lupin looks taken aback by her sudden trust for a second before he opens his mouth to answer her, but an errant thought makes him laugh instead. He rights himself and slaps a hand over his forehead. When he calms down and looks down at Selene she looks decidedly displeased. 

“Oh no, it’s not funny like that! It’s just that Selene is an ancient name for the moon, and the moon controls water, and it just struck me that you really are a child of fate,” Lupin giggles his way through his explanation and for the first time since he’s met her, Selene gives him a small but genuine smile. 

“That look suits you,” Lupin says and holds the sword out for her once again. Selene dismissively gives it another glance without taking it. 

“We agreed to help each other, right? I don’t want to be a princess, especially not because some rusty old sword said so. I want you to have it,” she gently pushes his hands back toward him with the sword still resting on his palms. His fingers curl around the blade as his smile grows from warm to blazing. 

“Who can argue with that logic?” He beams and takes its hilt in his right hand before lifting the sword over his head. He points it at the sky and as the blade catches the suns early morning rays it glimmers and shines like a beacon. The three people on the beach share a moment of feeling victorious in the morning sun while beholding it. 

“I saw something, over there!” A shout from the woods behind them calls out. Lupin hastily brings the sword down and whips around. More voices that can be heard after the initial one along with rustling among the underbrush and the barking of dogs clues them in on who are in the woods. 

“You really can’t be subtle for five god damn minutes,” Jigen snorts from the ground amusedly. 

“This is not my fault! Obviously the institution called the police after the attack, and then they must’ve found the cars in their search for the arsonists,” Lupin defends as he kneels by Jigen to put his free arm around him to help him up on his feet while Selene hurries over to the water. When they’re finally standing they look over at her to see her talking to the lake. Not long after she finishes stating her request the water splits much like last time, only this time a tunnel is created rather than an open path. 

“When you’re far out enough she’ll close the entrance behind you so that nobody will see you,” Selene explains as she frantically waves her hands for them to hurry up and walk back into the lake. Lupin and Jigen hobble over the porous sand away from the voices closing in behind them. When they pass her by they both grin saying their thanks and goodbyes. They walk over the bottom of the lake and just as they reach the point of the steep drop Lupin looks behind him and quietly shouts to Selene. 

“If a big man who yells loudly and asks a lot of questions comes out of those woods, don’t worry, that’s just Pops!” The water seals itself up and the last thing he sees on the beach is Selene waving to him and police stepping out from the trees. 

Selene lowers her hand after the water hides the thieves from view. The lake is completely still with nothing amiss to suggest its secret. Police officers are soon all over the place, one of them is quick to pull out his radio and call for an ambulance when he sees the dry blood on her face. She sighs and settles in for what will probably be a long morning. 

“Have you found anything? They must be around here!” A strong voice shouts. 

A big man who is loud and asks questions storms onto the beach. Selene calmly observes him. The officer he’s talking to replies in the negative and gestures at her. The big man spots her, and his turbulent demeanor calms down before he approaches her. He gets down on one knee to bring them face to face and opens his mouth to address her. 

“No, I haven’t seen any men,” Selene informs him before he gets a word out. Surprise written all over his face, the man snaps his mouth shut and stares at her. 

“Huh? Hey, how did you know what I was gonna ask if you didn’t see anything, girl?” He scolds and looks her over properly to determine what he is dealing with. Selene just looks up at the sky instead. From the corner of her eye she can perceive that he starts before he grabs the lapels of the jacket she’s wearing and pulls her closer. 

“Uh? You are wearing his jacket! Why are you covering for them?” Although very carefully, he shakes her as he asks his question to make her look back at his face. She frowns in annoyance as she does, and he leans in even closer still looking very stern and ready to continue the questioning when he suddenly stops. His eyes flicker all over her face. 

“Is that blood?” His voice is much softer and quieter when he asks her that, and looking at him now Selene realizes he’s become more worried about her than concerned about the whereabouts of the thieves. 

\- 

The trek all the way back across the lake is a tedious one. When finally the thieves reach the other side it is to discover that this side doesn’t have a nice gradually rising bottom that eventually meets the beach. No, this side just abruptly runs into a rocky wall, an almost perfect ninety degree climb to overcome if they want to get up. 

“Sorry Jigen, this is where I’ll have to leave you behind,” Lupin says and loosens his grip around Jigen’s waist, making him temporarily lose his balance and cling to Lupin with both hands before he steadies him again with a mean snicker. 

“Don’t joke like that! I could’ve fallen!” Jigen barks as Lupin sticks the sword into the muddy lake bottom to free up both his hands. 

“Lighten up, here,” with his hands free Lupin walks Jigen to the rock wall where he deposits him against it. After evaluating the surface and feeling around for good handholds for a minute Jigen eventually starts climbing using mostly his upper body strength. Lupin stays right behind him all the way up and gives him a boosting push once he’s reached the edge. Lupin then lets go of his grip on the wall and jumps back down to fetch the sword. 

His feet hit the lake’s bottom for the last time right next to the planted sword. He grips it by the hilt and pulls. It doesn’t budge and he pulls again, harder. When it still doesn’t give way Lupin looks down in confusion at the sword where the tip of it buries into the ground. 

A rock has formed around it, once again binding the sword to the bottom of the lake. An indignant yell escapes Lupin and he spins in place, giving every wall around him a chance to hear him loud and clear. 

“Hey! This is no fair, it was a gift! Selene herself said I’ve earned it!” He gesticulates wildly, then crosses his arms when the only response he gets is a tinkling purling that is reminiscent of laughter in a faraway way. He doesn’t get a chance to protest further as the walls start to sway in a threatening manner and waterdrops drip from the ceiling of the tunnel, and he gives up the hope of leaving with his price in favor of making it up the wall in time. 

Jigen has pulled himself some ways up the shore and sits resting against a tree when Lupin lifts himself over the edge as the water crashes down to fill up the hollowness of their tunnel. He crawls over, defeat radiating off his body, and slumps down next to Jigen who side eyes him for a moment. He doesn’t comment on the sword being gone but rather points to the opposite shore. 

“Zenigata,” is all he says. 

Lupin grumbles something back and looks at where he’s pointing. The figures on the other beach are just big enough to make out, and after a quick search he finds Selene petting one of the police dogs with Zenigata hovering over her. Selene tells him something that makes Zenigata look out over the lake thoughtfully before he walks down to the water’s edge and peers into the black waves. He doesn’t have to stand there for long before a man breaks the surface and flies in a wide arch through the air to land on the beach. Zenigata startles and falls down on the sand too as man after man is flung out of the water by an unknown force. 

Lupin snorts in amusement, though he’s still miffed about the sword. He sits with Jigen in companionable silence watching Zenigata and the police rush to handcuff every single one of the arsonists while Selene claps her hands in delight. By the time they’ve got all the men Zenigata almost seems to have forgotten about them for the time being, what with all the extra work he’s suddenly found himself having to deal with. 

“ _Wait_ , Zenigata! And it’s only morning yet! That means I win the bet!” Lupin suddenly exclaims and shoots upright from his slouched position. 

“What- are you serious? I got shot in the knee, cut me some slack,” Jigen huffs in disbelief behind Lupin. He’d completely forgotten about that dumb bet they placed the previous day, and bringing it up now kinda felt like adding insult to injury. 

“Are you really gonna take my money like this?” He grumbles as he sits up from the tree and lifts the brim of his hat from his eyes to give Lupin a proper glare. 

“A bet is a bet Jigen,” Lupin answers nonchalantly with an innocent look as if there is nothing he personally can do about it. 

“Jesus,” Jigen mumbles and leans back against the tree. If Lupin really wants his money as a consolation price he might as well give it to him to spare himself from having to be pickpocketed by his own boss. 

They continue to sit in silence basking in the warm sun, Jigen against the tree and Lupin with his knees raised and his arms wrapped around them humming contentedly while still observing the other beach. The sun casts spotty shadows in ever changing patterns over them through the leaves and dries their clothes as early noon approaches. Finally the police team pack up and leave, Zenigata kindly offers his hand to Selene who carefully considers it before accepting and walking away with him through the woods. 

Just as Jigen is about to voice his thoughts about how they’re gonna haul their asses back to the car he spots a rowboat gently floating on its own, ever so slowly making its way toward the shore just a few dozen meters away from them. He shouts and urges Lupin to hurry up and go grab it before it drifts away again. 

“Seems like we’ve still got some luck left if you can reach it,” Jigen says. Lupin watches the rowboat bob on the waves without making a move to get up. 

“There’s been a lot of that going around lately, but this is not it. This is a peace offering,” Lupin harrumphs. There’s some bitterness to it, but he still smirks lopsidedly as he says it. After another moment he stands and stretches. 

“I guess it’s up to me to fetch the car then,” Lupin looks down at Jigen who doesn’t respond. So he’s gonna act grumpy just because he lost a bet. Lupin clicks his tongue once before he stands astride Jigen’s outstretched legs and bends down over him until their faces are almost level. He cups Jigen’s jaws in his hands and tilts his face up until they’re looking at each other. 

“Hey, how about a kiss for the road?” He asks with a soft look and pleasant smile. 

“That’ll cost ya,” Jigen retorts, not fooled in the least by Lupin’s charm. 

“How much?” 

“However much is in my wallet,” Jigen dryly delivers his line. Lupin exclaims a sharp _oh!_ in mock offense with a dainty hand to his forehead to really get across the depth at which he’s been hurt, but giggles nonetheless. 

“Done!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me just gloss over the fact that this child just straight up murdered a man lmao  
> All jokes aside, thanks to all of you who’ve made it till the end, I hope it's been enjoyable, and I’ll see you in the next one!


End file.
